Posted by Brian Halstrom on Thu, May 20, 2010 @ 11:32 AM
It is critical to measure traffic, sources, successes and returns to make sure your doing a good job as a hospital. I see patient surveys and comment cards as what most hospitals consider the most effective method to do this. These survey's are done on patients "inside" the hospital. The ones that won't ever come back because they were upset are never measured. The patients not there for any other reason when the survey's are done are also not measured. How can this possibly be an accurate measurement of patient satisfaction?
We are in the year 2010 and we have things like email to communicate with patients, yet less than 20% of hospitals today collect email addreses let alone use them. Hospitals today are just now converting the focus a tiny bit from "acute care" to well care or prevention. Caring for patients goes well beyond the traditional visit and involves a retail healthcare strategy well known by chain drug stores and large discount chain stores like Wal-Mart.
This is a "Consumer Engagement Strategy." It requires retail applications for effective results. The hospital can offer supurb treatments and all employees could have wonderful relationships with thier patients and the hospital could still miss the boat on getting new patients or return patients through simple failures in marketing efforts. Success requires this effecient retail stratgy to really net results, repetition and acuratly measured effectiveness of efforts.
Paquin Healthcare who specializes in retail healthcare also use the marketing measures for building the retail traffic to drive traffic back to hospital core programs and services. Each componant functions as ideal for brand recognition, loyalty strategies, core business builders, and extend core customer base. Get the most bank for your efforts by using effecient, effective tools to generate tangible and properly measured results.
For example; hospital retail efforts like a gift shop tune up or an online store with health and wellness products can extend care to a patient long after the visit. Patients not currently inside the hospital building can benefit from these efforts online. If you include healthy monthly newsletters where your hospital can place ads for core programs and services in front of patients each month then you build awareness, extend care and drive traffic back. If you include loyalty card programs and include a point system for participation in diagnostic fairs then your capturing patients, extending additional billable services, building repeat business and your once again extending care to the individual. The capturing of emails in this online retail process allows you to effectively communicate your traditional surveys to the stream of people in your community who are not physicially at your facility and they can answer at thier convenience.
Service my friends goes beyond the visit and the sooner hospital exceutives take hold of this concept and run with it the sooner they will start enjoying the revenue streams that retail healthcare offers for hospitals including the millions currently going to local drug store chains.
Health, prevention and wellness care currently abused by a few in this open retail market need to go back into the trusted hands of the hospitals and healthcare professionals. Hospitals need to focus not just on acute care but on prevention and well care too. That is the only future of good hospital patient care.
Attend a Free webinar by Paquin Healthcare to find out more: http://bit.ly/PaqWebinar or call today: 407-566-1010 and we can help you get on the right road to success.
Posted by Tina O'Oconnell on Fri, May 07, 2010 @ 01:32 PM
Our current reimbursement-based system will fail: that's not a predication, but a certainty. The question is when, and what can be done alternately to make healthcare profitable while maintaining its core mission of serving the needs of the community.
Healthcare costs increase the cost of everything manufactured and every service provided in this country, which creates financial pressure first on the company, then on the consumer, and ultimately leads to outsourcing of jobs and importing of products manufactured for less overseas.
After World War II the federal government decided to get in the healthcare business by proxy: new regulations allowed employers to list employee healthcare costs as untaxed pay, allowing companies to lower their payroll taxes. Suddenly there was a way to compensate employees essentially off the books, and seeking benefits in addition to salary was a new employee priority because benefits also weren't taxed as personal income. The healthcare industry that evolved from this revelatory decision no longer survived by selling insurance one policy at a time; they sold to entire companies, and for the first time corporate America had a vested interest in employee health, even if it wasn't for the most noble reason. Initially everyone profited from the business arrangement.
The insurance and pharmaceutical industries also came to realize that there was profit to be made in creating products that provided quick-fix solutions and treatments for common problems that aren't necessarily medical problems (e.g. Viagra). Conventional medicine in our culture has always been more focused on cure rather than prevention: what if "cures" were invented for conditions that weren't necessarily medical in nature.
Why is health insurance so expensive? Our increased longevity is one reason, of course, and not just because we're in the healthcare system longer but because elderly people require more healthcare. A second reason is that the decline of the birth rate following the boom that produced the Baby Boomers has put fewer Payors into the system. A third factor, the same one that's responsible for the huge increase in the wellness industry, is that patients who were once content to receive treatment are now aware that wellness matters, too, and that quality of life is as if not more important than mere longevity, and the pharmaceutical companies are eager to create more drugs that require prescriptions, potentially furthering your health and certainly furthering their profits.
A recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers study points to increased utilization created by increased consumer demand as a cost factor; in other words, consumers seeking wellness options and the best care available and not merely the most convenient. The study also showed that new treatments and more intensive diagnostic testing have also increased costs; the newer treatments and better medicines are often the more expensive.
The good news for the retail healthcare industry is that many wellness choices are made by consumers regardless of whether their insurance company will reimburse the expense. Retail healthcare has not only expanded into areas not addressed by traditional sick-care insurance; it has ignored the conventional sick-care notions and ventured out on its own.
So fewer Payors, better and more healthcare options and an aging population are the most significant contributors to the current crisis, but there are others. Even though the cost to a hospital of a particular procedure may be nearly incalculable, human behavior is quite predictable. Life and health insurance are actuarial-based industries; companies can analyze certain data and predict not only how long you'll likely live, but what you're most likely to die of.
Actuaries can predict, based on lifestyle choices and demographic statistics, what the probability is that an individual will die before his next birthday. From this starting point a number of statistics can be derived, including the probability of surviving any particular year of age, the remaining life expectancy for people at different ages, and estimates of one's peers longevity characteristics. Insuring against illness and death are both business calculations; the only way for the insurer to make money is to develop accurate projections of future events.
Some factors identified by the PriceWatershouseCoopers study that increase insurance utilization (and therefore insurance prices) are lifestyle-related: smoking, obesity caused by insufficient exercise and excessive and unhealthy eating, excessive drinking, and drug use. These are some of the same factors that increase insurance costs as well: logically, high rates of alcoholism, smoking and obesity lead to long-term health problems, which actuaries can use to predict health-related issues and life expectancy.
Private health insurance and insurance provided by employers is expensive because of all these factors, but some are preventable. With so much federal tax money going to Medicare to treat chronic medical conditions it's not unreasonable to expect prevention and wellness to take precedence, but that will require the insurance and pharmaceutical companies to have more of a financial stake in keeping people well as opposed to merely treating illness. Companies seeking to reduce healthcare costs already know that smoking cessation programs and nicotine patches are far less expensive than treating emphysema and lung cancer, and time spent regularly exercising is less costly than quadruple-bypass surgery or years of Glucophage for Type II diabetes.
As an example, Modern Healthcare reported in its Dec. 24, 2007 "By the Numbers" issue that in 2007 the cost for fighting heart disease, the nation's number one killer, was $431.8 billion. A high percentage of heart disease is a direct result of poor diet, exercise and smoking, all issues that fall under the "wellness" umbrella. (The number two killer, cancer, cost $263.3 billion in the same year, another expenditure affected by smoking.)
Clearly, the cost of treating sickness rather than addressing wellness in the United States has not been as profitable for American businesses and the populace as a whole as it has been for the companies that treat sickness.
Too often the prevention of illness and disease has been ignored as a partial treatment for the cost of rising health insurance, but both medical institutions, which are pledged to maintaining community wellness, and the federal government, which is pledged to protecting the populace (even if it's protecting people from themselves) need to be proactive in promoting wellness and healthy lifestyles. Chronic illnesses and diseases bred by poor health maintenance and treated by the healthcare industry primarily in the no-turning-back illness stage of the problem are economically debilitating. (Pharmaceutical sales in 2007, meanwhile, were a robust $643 billion worldwide.)
Wellness isn't just what consumers seek: it's what the public needs to demand from healthcare purveyors, insurers and pharmaceutical companies. A logical federal action would be promoting wellness rather than allowing profit-driven industries to set the standards for appropriate care.
Meanwhile, wellness products and treatments are constantly emerging on the market, not compensated by traditional insurance carriers but sought by the public anyway.
Medicine that's primarily concerned with treating illness rather than preventing it is losing its sway with the informed consumer, and they're willing to take their business elsewhere, even to experimental or un-reimbursed remedies if the remedy will achieve what conventional sick-care can not.
Meanwhile, Medicare has reduced compensation to hospitals for certain procedures and treatments; hospitals are still obligated to treat Medicare patients, but now at additional uncompensated expense, another indicator of where the reimbursement system is headed.
Help doesn't appear to be on the way, either from the government or from profit-driven industries like pharmaceuticals and insurers. For physicians and hospitals, not treating isn't an option and not receiving Medicare patients isn't an option. The only option, other than to allow the dysfunctional healthcare industry to drag providers under, is to actively keep people healthier, and supplement traditional healthcare with a retail element.
Promoting wellness isn't only a community benefit, but also an economic benefit to the institutions that implement care. Mission-based healthcare, seeking to serve the community at large, seems incompatible with economic security, but that's not the case if adjustments are made that enable the hospital/clinic/physician to add a retail element to the business model.
Hospitals already engender trust and provide health and wellness services and products. All they need to capture a corner of an existing market that already generates billions of dollars each year is engage the consumer where the need is: providing products and services that promote wellness.
Paquin Healthcare can provide wellness service and solutions for your hospital to get the retail healthcare dollars your hospital's revenue stream could use! Call Paquin at: 407-566-1010 for more information or log into: www.paquinhealthcare.com/webinars to sign up for a free webinar.
This is an excerpt from the book: "Retail Healthcare Revolution" by: Tony Paquin
Posted by Brian Halstrom on Fri, Apr 30, 2010 @ 01:13 PM
Catholic Health Launches Online Health and Wellness Store, CatholicHealthEStore.com, with Paquin Healthcare
Orlando, FL - May 3rd, 2010 -- Paquin Healthcare Companies today announced the launch of Catholic Health's online health and wellness storefront CatholicHealthEStore.com. Catholic Health formed in 1998 serves the Buffalo, NY region. The new online storefront offers a vast product selection as an extension of the healthcare provider's services, a free healthy newsletter, a healthy rewards club, a baby registry and regular promotions for patients & employees.
Paquin Healthcare partners with hospitals, healthcare systems and physician groups nationwide to consult and implement retail healthcare strategies. As part of their services, Paquin Healthcare offers a custom-branded online storefront featuring thousands of health and wellness products. This great new resource for health supplies dramatically improves the extension of care to patients of Catholic Health.
"The ecommerce site presents Catholic Health with the opportunity to send patients directly to a source for recommended healthcare products," says Tony Paquin, Founder and CEO of Paquin Healthcare. "No matter the distance between the patient and their healthcare provider, the online storefront allows them immediate access to the products they are seeking."
The Catholic Health ecommerce storefront is located at: http://www.catholichealthestore.com/
For more information on the ecommerce storefront, please contact Tina O'Connell at Tina.OConnell@paquinhealthcare.comor by calling (407) 566-1010 ext. 215.
About Paquin Healthcare
Paquin Healthcare, the nation's leading specialist in healthcare-based retail, is an alliance of industry leading experts and resources created to assist hospitals in the identification and implementation of healthcare retail and online commerce strategies. The company's core mission is to increase revenue opportunities, engage the consumer, and minimize risks for healthcare organizations. As hospital operational expenses are dramatically changing, new sources for non-reimbursed revenues are becoming essential to the financial viability of hospitals. More details at: http://www.paquinhealthcare.com
Posted by Tina O'Oconnell on Thu, Mar 18, 2010 @ 08:16 AM
That new hospital fitness center aerobics class is starting in two weeks and you want the word out. Your hospital's marketing team has been working on just how to do it.
The big question is "How to make sure that the invitations don't make there way to the ninety year old recent heart attack patient asking him to join the latest aerobic kick boxing session."
As absurd as that sounds it happens every single day in marketing. The message, money and effort is wasted on that person who really is not the appropriate audience for the message. Worse, the result of that ninety year old person getting that kind of message makes him associate your brand name with junk mail. So when that message about the new cardiology program at your hospital designed to improve his heart health comes to him, he is expecting another aerobics class invite and drops it in the bin. Your marketing window of opportunity is shut! You really only do get one shot to do it right.
How about the message? The what you see is what they get is not actually how the message is always viewed. Three people can read the same sentence and gain a completely different understanding than the two other persons standing right next to them. You have to make the message so articulate and so clear that it can not be mis-interpreted by any reader to the best of your ability. I know this sounds like you need superman to join your marketing team; but, it is really not that hard. Simply taking the time to read and thinking through the message as if you were the on the receiving end and putting your self in the shoes of various types, ages and lifestyles of people to gage how they will view it will help you make sure it gets through to them as you intended it to in all scenarios to all readers.
The word of the day is target marketing and it is critical to your online and in house retail marketing success. Whether the effort is for your hospitals core programs and services or for your new online store; the message if going to everyone should be very general, if it is not, than it should be targeted in nature and sent only to those appropriate for that message. The message always must be simple and clear.
The right readership can be tricky. It takes research, and a good understanding of who your customer base is that your communicating with for that message.
At Paquin Healthcare we have technology built into our system that lets us learn who our visitors and our clients visitors are and really understand their health interests, health conditions, buying habits, activity level and interest, what thier family's health conditions are; and so much more, beyond the standard demographical data. This mass of information is then structured and "scored" to allow us to use the data gathered to appropriately communicate the message we are sending to the readers who have those specific interests at heart.
The more important result of all this technology is that we are making sure our message is always read, never junked and getting the financial results we and our clients want. Our virtual "aerobics classes" and our virtual "cardio testing programs" are able to host a full house because the right message is getting to the right people. Can you say the same? If not, talk to us about how we can do this for your hospital or retail business.
Posted by Tina O'Oconnell on Wed, Mar 03, 2010 @ 11:22 PM
Marketing is done by first understanding your audience and second by understanding the end result you want to achieve. The creative ways you analyze your resources to maximize results is where you can really make the most bang for your buck. There is everything from cost, time, labor and potential return factor into your decisions. In marketing it is often the traditional avenues that are used based on the resources that are common or comfortable and time to implement is why.
Each of these traditional resources is often repetitive for the marketing team. Consistency is important in marketing so your customers know exactly where to look but, sticking to old ways in a new world can put a stop sign on your returns. It is more important to know that the traditional options for getting the information to the consumers and getting the consumer to act on that information do not work the same way for marketing physical locations versus locations in the e-commerce world.
A good example is Billboard advertising, which for a physical location will mostly likely produce a fair return on the investment, but for a virtual destination such as your ecommerce site it will provide zero return for very logical reasons. A person who drives by a billboard is not going to slam on their breaks to write down a website address, nor are they going to lean over to the laptop in the passenger seat to get onto your ecommerce site. There is no harm in any positive marketing efforts only less or more return for effort. That is the gage.
The marketing path needs to bring the potential customer from the physical location into the online world. The best path is one that leads your online world to your consumer. If the URL is going to be brought to the consumer it needs to travel to the computer with the consumer or meet them there in the virtual world. (e.g. a take away card, brochure or materials with a good spin to compel or capture interest and an email address). The ideal situation is to simply get digital contact information from your consumer so all communications can be online. In usuing this path you bring the URL to your consumer in a much more effective way and you can do it over and over again. An email marketing address is not a "one hit" wonder. Just like traveling on the road there are rules and requirements to keep the tank full and keep going. If you market via email strategically and each time compel and provide incentives for the consumer to comply you can continue the journey with them to your destination.
There are solid tools in e-commerce that consistently work. The tried and true like newsletters & loyalty card programs each should require an email to receive. This is how you capture that digital contact information.
The important thing to do when considering any marketing plan is to think through the process from a consumer's point of view. What happens when I see the ad? What will it do to make sure I can get to the website? What is the incentive to comply? What is the real bottom line message to me? Is the process easy for me? Is the message compelling to a wide enough audience? Take the time to consider the process, the message and carefully drive your consumers exactly where you want them to go. Be sure they will not have roadblocks in getting to your intended destination that you in haste put in place. Make the road clear for your travelers to get to your online destination.
Posted by Tina O'Oconnell on Wed, Feb 17, 2010 @ 07:42 PM
The benefits of social media networking are very real and many online retail business owners are finding out just how many of the new connections, customers and dollars they are finding inside social media markets. They are also noticing just how hot they are to the bottom line.
Facebook claims that 50% of active users log into the site each day. That means 175 million users every 24 hours which has grown from 120 million users total last year. Twitter has 75 million user accounts but about 15 million are active with over 27.3 million tweets per day. Linked in a relatively new player in social media has over 50 million members. On all sites the actual user's median age is surprisingly 34 and an average time on the users site of choice is 39 minutes. This is a captive audience of people who have a good portion of the spending income online in their control.
So how do we get the friends, followers and dollars? Participation is the road to success, much like email marketing the content has to compel the reader. Just showing up will not get your blog or post the popular vote and you can have a ton of friends but unless they are clicking on, linking to and sharing your posts it is not going to make you a bundle. It will take an investment of time, research and posting.
You have to become the leading expert in your field who is willing to share that fresh and exciting knowledge with all the follower's, friends, link-in's and so on you can get. You will need to comment on other writer's comments, posts or blogs with great care; providing only well thought out feedback that also adds spice to the topic and brings them back to you. Be sure to drive your customer back with each online effort to your business using subtle links with key words, signing your name and website, adding images that link back to coupons and small hints and mentions of your company or product throughout the message.
Keep it simple at first -just answer a Linked-In's listed question or comment while your doing your homework. But always follow up later with more. Research the latest laws, issues and yes, hype about your business, products and competitors and share what you find to be the most compelling topics with your own spin. The one caution flag is to be careful not to get political. Although controversy can bring numbers it can bring a negative connotation of your online retail business with it.
The easiest way is to share information that will support a well known cause that factors into your ecommerce business. This will generate new and more importantly loyal customers. In the Healthcare ecommerce industry this is easy with American Heart Association (heart or stroke support), or Breast Cancer Support or in support of Elderly Home Care. Statistics show more people are directly affected or related to affected persons with these three conditions than any other health issues.
Be sure to share the work of researching and posting and responding with others, not just to lighten your workload but to keep the message and the perspective fresh. Monitor readership statistics to see what is getting the most return or "hits" and focus in on those areas. You can have full confidence this works and the effort is worth it as the proof is in the market today. Just look at Dell, Inc.; who in the last quarter of 2009 reported over $3-million dollars in computer product sales directly clicked through from posts on social media sites like Facebook. Wouldn't you like those results in your online retail site?
Posted by Tina O'Oconnell on Wed, Feb 03, 2010 @ 08:14 AM
How to compete in online healthcare ecommerce without breaking the bank? Little tools can lead to major success. The most important of which is: Email marketing.
This does not mean slapping together any tidbit and pushing it out to your list of clients. What makes email marketing effective? It's simple: permission and relevant content. This means that the recipient is expecting to receiving messages and considers the content of the emails to be beneficial.
This does not mean you can not have a little fun with it. When and online gaming membership site launched a simple Elf bowling Christmas game link they generated over two million hits resulting in huge paid membership spikes that lasted over six years and each year at holiday time this Christmas gift finds its way to many new email addresses all by itself.
It is not practical to reach out with a funny toy and expect the world to spin it into your bankroll every week so become an expert in your field and target your market to provide a service with your email. How do you know what works? Just log, watch & review your web page stats to know what topics generate more hits.
Despite critics who question email marketing's effectiveness, email marketing continually delivers the highest ROI for any marketing method. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing delivered $43.62 for every dollar spent in 2009.
For online retail healthcare business owners, this translates into a pre-qualified list of prospects and returning customers. To keep each loyal you only need to continue providing emails with content that is compelling and useful